Knowledge Sharing Behavior of Rice Farmers in the Cyber-Villages

Abstract

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has established cyber-villages in an effort to speed up dissemination and adoption of rice technologies. How farmers share information obtained from the sources is less documented. In this paper, we present an analysis of the knowledge sharing behavior of rice farmers in the Cyber-villages — the communities assisted by IRRI for its innovative technology transfer modalities in Infanta, Quezon. The study involved 76 rice farmers from three LGU- and three NGO-managed barangays. Results revealed that both LGU-managed and NGO-managed cyber-village farmers had highly positive knowledge seeking behavior and moderately positive knowledge donating behavior. It indicated that they were more of knowledge seekers than knowledge donors. The latent networks are predominantly star and linear chain, characterized by sparse central hubs and non-reciprocated ties. The central actors are limited to the intermediaries, farmer-leaders, and emerging farmer-consultants.